After the positive response that he received
for his previous outing as hero in Dindugal
Sarathy, Karunas once again tries his
luck as the protagonist in John Preito’s
production venture Ambasamudhiram Ambani
directed by P Ramanath. The title to a
large extent is indicative of the content
of the film and its proceedings of a hardworking
young man wanting to make it big on his
own in the bad city in a right manner
and his struggles to achieve his goal.

Karunas loses his dad at a very early age and later
on his mom too dies in a stampede in the process to
acquire free saree. Forced to fend for himself from
childhood, Karunas sets his foot on to the big metro
city Chennai. He meets Kota Srinivasa Rao through
whom he gets small time jobs and starts saving his
money diligently. He laments about the fact that the
paucity of a few hundreds of rupees has cost the life
of his mom and realizes the importance of money and
its reach. He strives very hard and desires to scale
greater heights and dreams of becoming big like the
Ambanis. (There comes the title connect!).

He wants a small shop in the commercial complex that
is being built by Kota Srinivasa Rao who refuses citing
Karunas’s weak financial status. Bogged down
by this, Karunas pleads with him saying that Kota
was the one who showed him a way when he first came
to Chennai and appeals to help him realize his dreams.
Kota also yields with a condition that if Karunas
manages the money in a few months time, the shop would
be his, otherwise it will not be. Kota warns Karunas
that the help that is being extended to him should
not be revealed to anyone not even to Kota’s
son. Karunas gladly agrees and is delighted that his
Ambani dream is after all at an achievable distance.

Meanwhile, fate with its cruel sleight of hands prove
spoilsport in Karunas’s life when Kota Srinivasa
Rao dies. Karunas is shell shocked and his Ambani
dreams are blown apart. Groping in the dark and not
knowing how to proceed with things, he approaches
Kota’s son and tries to explain the situation
but as expected he does not believe Karunas. This
leads Karunas to pack his bags along with his wife
Navneeth, and assistant Shankar to leave for his native
town. What happens afterwards? Whether he was able
to realize his dreams or not form the rest of Ambasamudhiram
Ambani.

Director Ramanath has chosen the ‘honesty is
the best policy’ and ‘hard work always
pays rich dividends’ as his central theme and
has spun a story around it. An interesting fact about
AA is that the film does not show cigarette smoking
or drinking or drugs anywhere which comes as a refresher
among the current crop of films. Characterization
of Karunas, Kota and the assistant boy Shankar is
worth mentioning. Entire film rests on Karunas’s
shoulders and he has understood the same and delivered
the goods. A simple testimony is the scene when he
shows myriad emotions at Kota’s death. His helplessness
at the seemingly bleak future and the shattered dreams
are very well portrayed by this comedian turned character
artiste. Performance-wise the assistant boy Shankar
steals the show next to Karunas. His talent comes
to the fore in the scene when he steals the few currency
notes that Karunas has.

Having said that, comedy is a big let down in AA and
so is the irritable Kulfi ice episodes and the heroine’s
vulgar dance moves. The sequences with Livingstone
do not gel well with the film. AA cannot boast itself
to be riding high on the technical front as the script
too does not warrant it. Karunas’s music and
Sabesh Murali’s BGM just pass muster. In the
Othakallu song, cameraman shaking the camera to bring
some kind of effect misfires drastically and is an
eye sore. Although AA moves at a lackadaisical phase,
it sure is a lesson for people striving to achieve
excellence through hard work. AA is a good moral story
apt for a family outing.